Changing Professional Culture

• In Event: Reculturing Schooling: Strategies and Consequences

Abstract

The professional culture of teaching is replete with entrenched norms, and practices. The findings from Dan Lortie’s (1975) seminal study on the culture of teaching suggests that there are deeply-rooted practices that are embraced by individual teachers, as well as by the larger teaching fraternity. Individualism, presentism, and conservatism are germane to individual teachers. Teachers work in isolation behind closed classroom doors, because of the “egg crate” (Lortie 1975) nature of teaching. Teachers are perceived as resisting change because for them, it is safer to continue with tried-and-tested strategies. Third, teachers appear to focus only on the day-to-day running of the classrooms instead of taking an interest in the broader structures of the education system because they are often omitted from policy consultation.

The professional norms of egalitarianism, autonomy, and seniority define how teachers work in relation to each other. The long-standing norm of egalitarianism hinders the assignment of differentiated roles among teachers (Johnson 1990). The persistence of these norms suggests that educational reform efforts to transform professional cultures and teaching roles may be more than just surface deep.

In response to the 2005 Education for All (EFA) initiative, 72 Ontario school districts developed curriculum projects that support students with special educational needs in ways that benefit all students. As part of a 28-month review of this initiative, researchers conducted three-day site visits to ten self-selected boards. Drawing from research data collected from three school districts, this paper describes and analyzes the implications of, and impact on the professional culture of teaching resulting from a centrally conceived policy that was implemented based on local needs and objectives. The findings reported in this paper are based on case studies of three districts.

Preliminary findings show different patterns of change in professional culture. Individualism has given way to more collaboration in some boards where classroom teachers, coaches, and Special Education Resource Teachers (SERTs) collaborate to meet students’ learning needs. Further, teachers engage in professional conversations about students’ performance levels and explore strategies moving students to the next performance level. The norm of autonomy and egalitarianism give way to more collaborative cultures, where teacher-coaches make their way into classrooms to model strategies for colleagues. At both the district and school levels, there is the breaking down of silos. There is evidence of a gradual dissolution of norms of seniority as both novice and veteran teachers report benefits of mutual learning.
However, the impact of implementing EFA on professional cultures is not without tensions. In the process of changing the status and increasing the presence of SERTs in classrooms, the norms of autonomy, egalitarianism, and seniority were upset and delicate re-balancing approaches were adopted by the school districts to restore the disequilibrium. Similarly, working to change the cultures of individualism, presentism, and conservatism were also fraught with struggle. A more critical concern among the districts is the sustainability of the shifts in professional culture. To this end, this paper analyses strategies used by districts to sustain the new collegial and collaborative efforts.

Authors

• Kathryn Ann Sallis, Council of Chief State School Officers

• Karen W. Lam, Boston College